(Previous Topic: gameplay freedom )

The environments in No Horizons are enormous. We have an in house procedural environment generator that is capable of generating universes that are billions of hexes in size.

Our environment generator is based on an intricate set of rules that determine how the environment is generated. These rules can be tweaked so that each server has a unique environment that is a No Horizons world. For example, we might change the amount of water that is likely to appear, making worlds that have more oceans, or change the frequency of aeroliths occuring. In the home edition of No Horizons you can mod the rules to generate your own environments and, if you're feeling adventurous, your own textures and models.

The environment impacts how your culture operates. For instance, each tree in the game world does not represent a single tree, but gives you an indication of the density of trees in that area. Moving a army through that area (especially if it has vehicular equipment) could be significantly slower than moving through a less-dense but less-direct route. The environment gives you both tactical advantages and disadvantages.

You can climb the mountainous regions to see further, you can have your airborne equipment fly close to the ground to use the land as cover or fly up above the clouds for longer range sorties that require stealth. Incredibly large units however will find little coverage in the foliage of a forest and will in fact knock down trees in their path. This disadvantage can be turned into an advantage by trampling your gargantuan units through enemy cities, knocking down buildings and causing chaos.